This disclosure relates to system design and, more particularly, to designing a system using accurate performance models. A performance model is a representation of a system that is intended to mimic the way in which a system operates. A performance model may be used to verify performance metrics of the system. As an illustrative example, a complex system such as a central processing unit may be modeled using one or more performance models. The performance models may be used to analyze aspects of the system relating to resource consumption, possible contention for resources, and delays introduced by processing and/or other physical limitations within the system.
The performance models for a system are often constructed in the early stages of system design. Typically, performance models are developed from a high-level specification of the system being developed. As such, the various parameters incorporated into the performance model such as expected throughput and latency are educated guesses of the expected performance of the system.